I enjoyed this movie but the levels of silliness are off the charts, coming close at some points to self-parody, which potentially ruins the "spell" of a movie. It's fair to say that all three MCU films this year have been lighthearted. I don't mind it: it's nice that they can vary the tone. But I hope they can still turn on the gravitas when they need to.

Highlights are:

*The Odd Couple feel between the roomies Thor and Hulk

*Great post-credit scene with the Grandmaster. Goldblum cracks me up.

*Hulk

Spoiler:

beating himself up to stay angry, in order to forestall the return of Banner

I'll only be seeing it in a couple of weeks with my brothers when I'm visiting my family, but I'm looking forward to it a lot. I don't mind the lighthearted nature of the MCU, it's kind of what I'm looking for in it, and a major differentiation from the drab DC universe at the moment (though yes Wonder Woman was decent).

I thought it was decent, pretty funny in places, wish there’d been more of the rock guy Taika Waititi voices. I preferred the other two Marvel films this year though, there’s nothing in this quite as funny as the Mary Poppins line in Guardians 2 and no moment as impressive as the twist in Spider-Man: Homecoming.

"Excuse me Miss, do you like pineapple?"

"I don't want to achieve immortality through my work, I want to achieve it through not dying"

I enjoyed it. Certainly the best of the Thor movies, not that that is saying a great deal as the first two were among the most forgettable in the MCU. Tessa Thompson and Taika Waititi were certainly a bit incidental to the actual story and could have used a bigger role but I suppose Ragnarok should be focused on the Aesir. Not that the events in the movie have much connection to the mythological Ragnarok.

I found the mid-credits scene rather bizarre though.

Spoiler:

We had this whole "home is the people and the people are still alive" mood going and then this big scary ship appears. Trying to find some explanation online of what it all means, the only thing I could discover was some speculation that this is Thanos coming for the Tesseract (makes sense) and he'll wipe out the surviving Asgardians before Infinity War starts.

OP Tipping wrote:It's fair to say that all three MCU films this year have been lighthearted. I don't mind it: it's nice that they can vary the tone.

Lighthearted as opposed to what? The only MCU film I wouldn't quite describe as lighthearted were Winter Soldier and Civil War but even they aren't too far off. All the other MCU films are colorful and lighthearted with (sometimes) deeper issues for people who care to look beyond the surface without spoiling the fun in the moment.

OP Tipping wrote:It's fair to say that all three MCU films this year have been lighthearted. I don't mind it: it's nice that they can vary the tone.

Lighthearted as opposed to what? The only MCU film I wouldn't quite describe as lighthearted were Winter Soldier and Civil War but even they aren't too far off. All the other MCU films are colorful and lighthearted with (sometimes) deeper issues for people who care to look beyond the surface without spoiling the fun in the moment.

Well these things are relative. There's humour in all the movies, but yeah, Winter Soldier and Civil War are designed to be taken seriously, and the same can be said to a lesser extent of the two Avengers films: they ain't just for the lols.

Short version: it feels like the movie's trying too hard to be a comedy. It's a movie about the prophesied end of the world (or realm or whatever Asgard is) but that's not important - what's important is that Thor and Loki are together again and Thor gets to fight as a gladiator...

T'was a bit silly, but the whole concept is silly when you really think about it, so it's nice that they have fun with the ideas. Taika Waititi made "What We Do In The Shadows" which is the best vampire comedy film to come out of New Zealand, and he threw in a few nice antipodean references including one throwback to "The Castle", a classic Australian film from the 90s.

Pfhorrest wrote:Yeah my general impression of the movie was "Guardians of the Galaxy, if it were a Thor movie".

The Guardians movies have genuine emotion to them too - Ragnarok kept feeling like there were moments that should have carried emotional weight but didn't. I might feel differently after a rewatch, which will be after it comes out on DVD, but my experience in the cinema was that there was nothing like the "bunch of losers" speech, or Rocket crying over a handful of twigs, or Peter giving Gamora his mask, or the moment of pelvic sorcery, or...

rmsgrey wrote:The Guardians movies have genuine emotion to them too - Ragnarok kept feeling like there were moments that should have carried emotional weight but didn't.

Maybe there weren't as many but there were still some. The best ones were (weirdly?) about The Hulk like when he

Spoiler:

started punching himself to keep himself angry because he was using it as a tool to not deal with his other emotions.

I found Taika Waititi's character to be even more out of place than Doctor Strange. A lot of the supporting cast wasn't all that well developed but still had some personality. Korg seemed to have no personality at all. It felt like every single line he had was a wisecrack, not only devoid of emotion itself but often used to relieve the tension of an otherwise emotional scene.

SecondTalon wrote:Part of Strange's job is "Don't let the universal order fuck itself".

Hela is attempting to fuck said universal order. Better for Strange to get involved early.

I understand Strange's motivations, but he didn't have anything to do with Hela. He didn't have anything to do with this movie. I know they're trying to remind us that he exists so they can tie it all together, but they should have done a better job making me care that he was there. Or at least have Strange wrap up the conversation with a "Great, you've convinced me that you're not going to let the universal order fuck itself, now I'm a busy man, so off you go!" I found the (amusing) five-minute scene pretty jarring in that respect.

SecondTalon wrote:Part of Strange's job is "Don't let the universal order fuck itself".

Hela is attempting to fuck said universal order. Better for Strange to get involved early.

I understand Strange's motivations, but he didn't have anything to do with Hela. He didn't have anything to do with this movie. I know they're trying to remind us that he exists so they can tie it all together, but they should have done a better job making me care that he was there. Or at least have Strange wrap up the conversation with a "Great, you've convinced me that you're not going to let the universal order fuck itself, now I'm a busy man, so off you go!" I found the (amusing) five-minute scene pretty jarring in that respect.

He did pretty much say "I don't want Loki around, so I'm going to help you find Odin so you'll leave and take your brother with you."

Given that Odin had disappeared from where Loki left him, Strange provides a way of tracking him down that doesn't require Heimdall and doesn't involve giving Thor or Loki an ability that might be inconvenient later.

Yep... but the movie would have been exactly the same if Odin hadn't disappeared at all. He could have been sitting in the retirement home where Loki left him and nothing would have changed, except for the out-of-nowhere cameo. Lazy.

SDK wrote:Yep... but the movie would have been exactly the same if Odin hadn't disappeared at all. He could have been sitting in the retirement home where Loki left him and nothing would have changed, except for the out-of-nowhere cameo. Lazy.

And the implications of Odin and Loki's relative power levels, losing an example of Loki's drop in competence having "won", having Hela appear in the heart of a crowded city rather than an empty cliffside, not having the tease of potentially rehoming the Asgardians in Norway, Loki potentially having to move out into the open to call for the Bifrost...

Just the demonstration of how lazy Loki has gotten since taking over is a worthwhile contirbution to the story in itself.